Jailbreak

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Solid state drives are amazing drive replacements for hard disk drives. They have awesome read and write speeds, they are durable, and they use less energy. The large misconception is that they last forever. Just like a hard disk drive, a solid state drive is susceptible to degrading with use. They must be maintained just like a hard disk drive must be. In the last couple of years, our understanding of how the solid state drive works has advanced so quickly that we are now ordering them standard in many computers that we own.

One thing that you might not have known, is that you can increase the life span on your solid state drive by enabling a tool called TRIM. It's not an acronym, it's a command. TRIM is used to help clean up your solid state drive and keep it alive longer. The way that a solid state drive works puts stress on certain memory blocks. Imagine that you have just written data to a clean solid state drive. If you delete part of that data, the solid state drive will simply do what a hard disk drive does and tell itself that it can rewrite over that part. In other words, the deleted data stays there waiting to be over-written. Now, when the solid state drive goes to rewrite over that part that you deleted, it will have to erase and rewrite the whole amount of data that you wrote. Not just the part that you deleted. This is why performance is reduced and why solid state drives can slow down or die over time. This problem can lead to fragmentation due to NAND memory getting clogged with both deleted and stored data.

TRIM is a tool that helps erase that deleted data from a solid state drive when you delete it. It helps ensure that the solid state drive doesn't have to rewrite the whole amount of data where you deleted just a part of it and that the solid state drive can simply rewrite over the part that you deleted. TRIM keeps your NAND memory looking as clean as when you bought it so that the memory is ready to be rewritten to again in the future.

Mac computers come with TRIM automatically enabled on Apple-shipped solid state drives. But, if you bought your own solid state drive and you install it yourself, then TRIM will not be enabled. This can be dangerous. Life spans of non-TRIM solid state drives can be dramatically lower than TRIM solid state drives. If you bought a solid state drive yourself and installed it on your Mac, then you should enable TRIM. To do this, you can download a tool that will patch your solid state drive so that the Mac recognizes it as one of Apple's. It was recently updated: TRIM Enabler 2.0 beta 4.

As you see from the screenshot above, enabling TRIM is as easy as turning on a switch. Once you have it turned on, it gets to work making sure that your solid state drive isn't coagulating with deleted data. This is an extremely important tool for Mac users who have installed a solid state drive and I cannot stress this enough. You need TRIM. Do you have TRIM already? Share in the comments.

Installed and Activated. Showed that my HDD also had SMART on.
But it does not show Lifetime Writes, so how does this Trim Really help me O.o beside Cleaning up.
I was told KINGSTON SVP100S296G Had a build in trim alike system on the SSD ???
How different is this over the one on SSD ?

Installed and Activated. Showed that my HDD also had SMART on.
But it does not show Lifetime Writes, so how does this Trim Really help me O.o beside Cleaning up.
I was told KINGSTON SVP100S296G Had a build in trim alike system on the SSD ???
How different is this over the one on SSD ?

Installed and Activated. Showed that my HDD also had SMART on.
But it does not show Lifetime Writes, so how does this Trim Really help me O.o beside Cleaning up.
I was told KINGSTON SVP100S296G Had a build in trim alike system on the SSD ???
How different is this over the one on SSD ?

Mac computers come with TRIM automatically enabled on Apple-shipped solid state drives. But, if you bought your own solid state drive and you install it yourself, then TRIM will not be enabled. This can be dangerous. Life spans of non-TRIM solid state drives can be dramatically lower than TRIM solid state drives. If you bought a solid state drive yourself and installed it on your Mac, then you should enable TRIM.

DO NOT FOLLOW THIS ADVICE.

DO NOT FOLLOW THIS ADVICE.

This is extremely irresponsible and wrong information to be writing on this site. You NEVER use third party software to "trick" an SSD into using TRIM. DO NOT DO THIS. Instead of giving this horribly irresponsible advice, you should tell your readers to consult the manufacturer of the SSD controller or the manufacturer of the drive itself on whether or not you should use this third party software. I have an OWC drive and they explicitly state that you do not need to use any software to enable TRIM because their controller has really good garbage collection algorithms already, and as such they do not support using this or any other tool. I cannot believe that you wrote such a terrible article and gave such terrible advice. NEVER "fool" any kind of data drive into doing ANYTHING without the manufacturers blessing. That's a sure fire way to lose data and void a warranty. I suggest this article either be severely amended to add factual information and sufficient warnings, or be deleted altogether.

DO NOT FOLLOW THE ADVICE IN THIS ARTICLE. IT IS IRRESPONSIBLE, WRONG, AND COULD VOID A WARRANTY OR DAMAGE YOUR DRIVE.

This is extremely irresponsible and wrong information to be writing on this site. You NEVER use third party software to "trick" an SSD into using TRIM. DO NOT DO THIS. Instead of giving this horribly irresponsible advice, you should tell your readers to consult the manufacturer of the SSD controller or the manufacturer of the drive itself on whether or not you should use this third party software. I have an OWC drive and they explicitly state that you do not need to use any software to enable TRIM because their controller has really good garbage collection algorithms already, and as such they do not support using this or any other tool. I cannot believe that you wrote such a terrible article and gave such terrible advice. NEVER "fool" any kind of data drive into doing ANYTHING without the manufacturers blessing. That's a sure fire way to lose data and void a warranty. I suggest this article either be severely amended to add factual information and sufficient warnings, or be deleted altogether.

DO NOT FOLLOW THE ADVICE IN THIS ARTICLE. IT IS IRRESPONSIBLE, WRONG, AND COULD VOID A WARRANTY OR DAMAGE YOUR DRIVE.

Stop freaking out. Turning on Trim won't destroy hard drives, but as you indicate, it's not needed with a lot of the new controllers. And you DO sometimes use 3rd party drivers for trim. People just need to look up what's best for their individual drive.

SSD's are incredibly different from chipset to chipset, stop thinking like it's one size fits all.

According to OWC, it can in fact damage your drive. But I'll be sure and listen to you and the writer because you obviously know more about their hardware than they do.

Originally Posted by JesseDegenerate

And you DO sometimes use 3rd party drivers for TRIM.

Actually, no. You do not use third party drivers to enable TRIM. Unless you have the blessing of the manufacturer or like to use unverified software off the internet without a sliver of a chance of getting support from the dude who wrote it. Which you won't get any and it's extremely irresponsible to recommend using this without any disclaimer or warning. The writer DOES NOT explain any of this in the article.

Originally Posted by JesseDegenerate

People just need to look up what's best for their individual drive.

Which is something this article makes absolutely ZERO mention of, in fact it plays to ignorant fear of the drive exploding or becoming non-functional if you don't use this software. WHICH IS EXPLICITLY FALSE. Nothing could be further from the truth. Any SSD made in the last 18 months will have good garbage collection algorithms in the firmware and most likely won't require TRIM throughout its operating life. It's simply not really needed on most drives. I think this applies to about 95% of the market because SSDs really only became somewhat affordable within the last 18-24 months and in that timeframe garbage collection is good enough to not need TRIM enabled.

Originally Posted by JesseDegenerate

SSD's are incredibly different from chipset to chipset, stop thinking like it's one size fits all.

Oh, you mean like the writer is doing in this article? Example:

"If you bought a solid state drive yourself and installed it on your Mac, then you should enable TRIM."
"But, if you bought your own solid state drive and you install it yourself, then TRIM will not be enabled. This can be dangerous."
"This is an extremely important tool for Mac users who have installed a solid state drive and I cannot stress this enough. You need TRIM."

All of those statements are completely false. You DO NOT NEED TRIM on almost every drive made in the last 18-24 months. It's simply untrue to say that if you bought an SSD yourself, that you need TRIM, it's dangerous not to have it enabled through some software a dude wrote and put on the internet, or it will fail spectacularly within a few months. There isn't a non-TRIM enabled SSD or one without good Garbage Collection anywhere in the market. You simply cannot get an SSD that doesn't have either one or both of those things. Adding this into OS X to force TRIM on your drive is a good way to void a warranty and the author says absolutely nothing about this. Go ahead and contact Oskar Groth when your drive dies and see if he'll honor your warranty. I guarantee you that if your drive fails and the vendor finds out you used third party software from some dude that lives in Sweden to force the drive into doing something, they will void your warranty and tell you to go pound sand.

Originally Posted by JesseDegenerate

/from someone using SSDs for about 6-7 years now.

I quite enjoy your little claim of being a user of SSDs for the last 6-7 years. I'd like to know how you came to make this dubious claim, because for agreement with the content of this article and defending the blatant false statements suggest to me you know about as much about SSDs as the writer. Which seems to be a dangerous amount of ignorance. I'd also love to know what your first drive was, what controller was on it, and what your current drive and the controller on it is. Because nothing released for public sale in the last 2 years needs TRIM, unless you buy a cheap **** drive and in that case you deserve having a crappy drive. I've had the same (OWC) SSD in two different MacBook Pros for the last 16 months and it's never had any kind of TRIM enabled on it. I've lost less than 5% of it's OOB speed in both read and write, random and sequential. TRIM is simply not needed with almost every SSD made within the last 18 months.

If you want to follow this advice, go right ahead. I just hope that the writers irresponsibility and your ignorance help you pay for a new drive when the manufacturer voids your warranty for using some software you found on the internet. My advice is to take 15 minutes and contact/call the people who made your drive and find out what they recommend and what they support. Reading some blog post by an ignorant writer, on a website that has had a long history of hiring more ignorant and irrelevant writers, and blindly following the advice built on fear mongering is a really dumb thing to do. Especially with a component that isn't cheap and isn't readily available in large quantities. Go right ahead though, enable this software. What could go wrong right?

On a side note, I just built my Win7 box on an SSD and did some back to back tests and the performance increase is VERY noticeable. Highly recommend people look at ssd's as their next hardware purchase.

The next article is on USB stick drives. I bet the arguments in that will be a blood bath. Lol
I turned TRIM on and my microwave dinged. Coincidence? I think not
Sorry, I had to toss that in there. I am old school, I still use 8" floppy disks

SSD's are incredibly different from chipset to chipset, stop thinking like it's one size fits all.

I think you kind of made his point . This article seems to misunderstand the purpose and implications of the trim command while suggesting it as a blanket improvement. As you say, they are all different. Two of the SSDs I have are designed to be used without trim. It's a good thing I actually know that.

This is kind of funny. I stopped reading this site regularly a few months ago because the numerous blatant technical errors and inaccuracies that plagued Anthony Bouchard's articles made it so frustrating to read.

This is kind of funny. I stopped reading this site regularly a few months ago because the numerous blatant technical errors and inaccuracies that plagued Anthony Bouchard's articles made it so frustrating to read.

First time I've been on this site in a couple of months to read the news section, and this is the kind of article that I see first. Lazy writing, incomplete writing, huge technical errors and horrible advice based on fear mongering and ignorance. I've logged in to look at the forums recently, but the articles here are full of inaccuracies all around, not just in his articles. It seems as though they will allow anyone with a keyboard and an opinion to write here. There obviously isn't any hierarchy of editing or fact checking here, errors and completely false statements are made all the time and are never corrected.

This is extremely irresponsible and wrong information to be writing on this site. You NEVER use third party software to "trick" an SSD into using TRIM. DO NOT DO THIS. Instead of giving this horribly irresponsible advice, you should tell your readers to consult the manufacturer of the SSD controller or the manufacturer of the drive itself on whether or not you should use this third party software. I have an OWC drive and they explicitly state that you do not need to use any software to enable TRIM because their controller has really good garbage collection algorithms already, and as such they do not support using this or any other tool. I cannot believe that you wrote such a terrible article and gave such terrible advice. NEVER "fool" any kind of data drive into doing ANYTHING without the manufacturers blessing. That's a sure fire way to lose data and void a warranty. I suggest this article either be severely amended to add factual information and sufficient warnings, or be deleted altogether.

DO NOT FOLLOW THE ADVICE IN THIS ARTICLE. IT IS IRRESPONSIBLE, WRONG, AND COULD VOID A WARRANTY OR DAMAGE YOUR DRIVE.

Is this guy serious? Because the SSD you own has a new controller with improved garbage handling you think everyone should abide you idiotic remarks about TRIM being a bad thing? Drive manufacturers haven't done a good job of releasing software to support their hardware. Some new chipsets support trim and some new SSDs provide TRIM-like features. Most of the SSDs on the market can and do benefit from TRIM support. And following your broken logic we ought to stop jailbreaking our iOS devices because Apple hasn't given us its blessing. Troll somewhere else.

Drive manufacturers haven't done a good job of releasing software to support their hardware.

I'm sorry, you're going to have to provide a citation for this claim. From what articles are written on SSD controllers at AnandTech.com and Anand Lal Shimpi doing extensive testing with manufacturers, it would seem you are completely wrong. He has reproduced errors and worked directly with a number of them to fix those errors. I trust AnandTech, I don't trust you and certainly not the sloppy, presumptuous, incorrect, and ignorant information in this article.

Originally Posted by politicalslug

Because the SSD you own has a new controller with improved garbage handling you think everyone should abide you idiotic remarks about TRIM being a bad thing?...Some new chipsets support trim and some new SSDs provide TRIM-like features.

I'm guessing you can't read. I provided a link to my source for my comments. OWC, a company that uses the SandForce controller recommends against using this tool. They are one of many that use this controller and in that link they specifically stated they don't recommend or support the use of this tool. I'm not saying that TRIM is a bad thing, I'm saying that you should consult your manufacturer before applying this "tool" that comes from some dude on the internet. Seeing that your reading and comprehension skills are well below average I wouldn't expect you to understand this. I said you should ask your SSD manufacturer before using this tool because of warranty and manufacturer specific recommendations. Not because I think that TRIM is useless, it's very useful, but because people that aren't very knowledgeable won't know this could void their warranty. I also said that when drives started becoming affordable, GC has gotten good enough to keep the drive safe even without TRIM enabled. Obviously you can't read or comprehend this.

Originally Posted by politicalslug

Is this guy serious?

Yes. The Swedish guy that wrote this tool WILL NOT provide you with warranty support nor a warranty claim if anything were to go wrong when using this tool. If the manufacturer of your SSD were to find out you used some random persons tool to force their drive to do something, they will most likely laugh you off the phone and tell you "tough ****." The current version of this tool is a beta, released to fix a crash of the app on startup. If you're stupid enough to use this tool that's in beta and comes from some random dude then you get what you deserve.

Originally Posted by politicalslug

IBecause the SSD you own has a new controller with improved garbage handling you think everyone should abide you idiotic remarks about TRIM being a bad thing?

There isn't a commerically available SSD that doesn't have some sort of garbage collection. The problems discussed in this article were an issue about 2 years ago, it's much less relevant today. I never said TRIM was bad, I said it was wrong to make the blanket statement that every drive needs to use TRIM, that not having it enable isn't dangerous, and using a third party tool written by someone on the internet was stupid advice to give. There are blantant inaccuracies and ignorant assumptions littering this article and in my second post I clarified what they were. TRIM is great, but it isn't necessary and at least one manufacturer recommends against using it. I provided a source as well, something you've failed to do.

Originally Posted by politicalslug

Most of the SSDs on the market can and do benefit from TRIM support.

Maybe, maybe not. While you've given nothing but your opinion on the source I've linked to, I'd say you need to cite facts to support your statement. OWC uses the common SandForce controller and they steadfastly do not support using this TRIM tool, and recommend against using TRIM overall. Not every manufacturer uses TRIM or recommends TRIM, something you and JesseDegenerate obviously didn't know while claiming to. What do you think someone without the knowledge that you both supposedly have would get from this article? They would take the article at face value and assume incorrectly that their SSD would be a worthless piece of junk without this tool written by some guy on the internet and could possibly void the warranty on their $400-600 SSD. There are multiple reports of having serious issues on the OWC link when using this tool. If OWC weren't the great company they were they could tell every customer that used this tool and screwed up their drive that they were @@@@ outta luck.

Originally Posted by politicalslug

And following your broken logic we ought to stop jailbreaking our iOS devices because Apple hasn't given us its blessing.

Jailbreaking has proven to be 100% reversable from the very beginning. If you equate a phone with a hard drive that is already lifetime limited, then I don't know what to tell you. When an SSD controller dies, you can't recover it. It's gone. When something goes screwy on an iOS device it's very easy to recover that. What's more important to you, a silly iPod or a $600 hard drive? My phone has absolutely nothing on it I can't stand to lose, my hard drive does not.

Originally Posted by politicalslug

Troll somewhere else.

I don't think I'm the troll here. Your grasp and rebuttal of my statements in pretty poor. You've provided no sources that this tool works correctly, the manufacturers won't void your warranty from using this tool, or that drives will benefit from using this tool. If it came from Apple I'd have no issue, you could go to them from screwing up your hardware. Oskar Groth will do no such thing, and you could possibly be left with broken hardware and no way to get it fixed. I have provided a source from a major manufacturer that uses the most popular SSD controller on the market saying they do not recommend and do not support those that use this tool. Until you can show the same, you are the one trolling.

Might I suggest you read my other comments on this story. If you can muster some sort of reading comprehension from somewhere you'll see why this article is FULL of incorrect and dangerous assumptions about SSDs and the advice given is horrible. There are multiple statements that are completely and utterly wrong. Maybe if you read more than the first few sentences and the headline you'd know this. But obviously you didn't and decided to call me out as a troll while being one yourself.

The problem with this article is that it passes off opinion as fact. What's written here isn't even based off fact, it's based off interpretation and gives no reliable or complete information to support the opinion stated. This article is wrong almost all the way through and the advice and information should be ignored and not trusted respectively.

[QUOTE=KartRacer;6366974]According to OWC, it can in fact damage your drive. But I'll be sure and listen to you and the writer because you obviously know more about their hardware than they do.

Actually, no. You do not use third party drivers to enable TRIM. Unless you have the blessing of the manufacturer or like to use unverified software off the internet without a sliver of a chance of getting support from the dude who wrote it. Which you won't get any and it's extremely irresponsible to recommend using this without any disclaimer or warning. The writer DOES NOT explain any of this in the article.

I'm sorry, you're going to have to provide a citation for this claim. From what articles are written on SSD controllers at AnandTech.com and Anand Lal Shimpi doing extensive testing with manufacturers, it would seem you are completely wrong. He has reproduced errors and worked directly with a number of them to fix those errors. I trust AnandTech, I don't trust you and certainly not the sloppy, presumptuous, incorrect, and ignorant information in this article.

I'm guessing you can't read. I provided a link to my source for my comments. OWC, a company that uses the SandForce controller recommends against using this tool. They are one of many that use this controller and in that link they specifically stated they don't recommend or support the use of this tool. I'm not saying that TRIM is a bad thing, I'm saying that you should consult your manufacturer before applying this "tool" that comes from some dude on the internet. Seeing that your reading and comprehension skills are well below average I wouldn't expect you to understand this. I said you should ask your SSD manufacturer before using this tool because of warranty and manufacturer specific recommendations. Not because I think that TRIM is useless, it's very useful, but because people that aren't very knowledgeable won't know this could void their warranty. I also said that when drives started becoming affordable, GC has gotten good enough to keep the drive safe even without TRIM enabled. Obviously you can't read or comprehend this.

Yes. The Swedish guy that wrote this tool WILL NOT provide you with warranty support nor a warranty claim if anything were to go wrong when using this tool. If the manufacturer of your SSD were to find out you used some random persons tool to force their drive to do something, they will most likely laugh you off the phone and tell you "tough ****." The current version of this tool is a beta, released to fix a crash of the app on startup. If you're stupid enough to use this tool that's in beta and comes from some random dude then you get what you deserve.

There isn't a commerically available SSD that doesn't have some sort of garbage collection. The problems discussed in this article were an issue about 2 years ago, it's much less relevant today. I never said TRIM was bad, I said it was wrong to make the blanket statement that every drive needs to use TRIM, that not having it enable isn't dangerous, and using a third party tool written by someone on the internet was stupid advice to give. There are blantant inaccuracies and ignorant assumptions littering this article and in my second post I clarified what they were. TRIM is great, but it isn't necessary and at least one manufacturer recommends against using it. I provided a source as well, something you've failed to do.

Maybe, maybe not. While you've given nothing but your opinion on the source I've linked to, I'd say you need to cite facts to support your statement. OWC uses the common SandForce controller and they steadfastly do not support using this TRIM tool, and recommend against using TRIM overall. Not every manufacturer uses TRIM or recommends TRIM, something you and JesseDegenerate obviously didn't know while claiming to. What do you think someone without the knowledge that you both supposedly have would get from this article? They would take the article at face value and assume incorrectly that their SSD would be a worthless piece of junk without this tool written by some guy on the internet and could possibly void the warranty on their $400-600 SSD. There are multiple reports of having serious issues on the OWC link when using this tool. If OWC weren't the great company they were they could tell every customer that used this tool and screwed up their drive that they were @@@@ outta luck.

Jailbreaking has proven to be 100% reversable from the very beginning. If you equate a phone with a hard drive that is already lifetime limited, then I don't know what to tell you. When an SSD controller dies, you can't recover it. It's gone. When something goes screwy on an iOS device it's very easy to recover that. What's more important to you, a silly iPod or a $600 hard drive? My phone has absolutely nothing on it I can't stand to lose, my hard drive does not.

I don't think I'm the troll here. Your grasp and rebuttal of my statements in pretty poor. You've provided no sources that this tool works correctly, the manufacturers won't void your warranty from using this tool, or that drives will benefit from using this tool. If it came from Apple I'd have no issue, you could go to them from screwing up your hardware. Oskar Groth will do no such thing, and you could possibly be left with broken hardware and no way to get it fixed. I have provided a source from a major manufacturer that uses the most popular SSD controller on the market saying they do not recommend and do not support those that use this tool. Until you can show the same, you are the one trolling.

Might I suggest you read my other comments on this story. If you can muster some sort of reading comprehension from somewhere you'll see why this article is FULL of incorrect and dangerous assumptions about SSDs and the advice given is horrible. There are multiple statements that are completely and utterly wrong. Maybe if you read more than the first few sentences and the headline you'd know this. But obviously you didn't and decided to call me out as a troll while being one yourself.

The problem with this article is that it passes off opinion as fact. What's written here isn't even based off fact, it's based off interpretation and gives no reliable or complete information to support the opinion stated. This article is wrong almost all the way through and the advice and information should be ignored and not trusted respectively.

LOL... I think the fact that your rebuttal goes to this great length and repetition makes you a troll. I almost threw up in my mouth a little

LOL... I think the fact that your rebuttal goes to this great length and repetition makes you a troll. I almost threw up in my mouth a little

I guess if being right is trolling, then I'm trolling. Because the writer is completely wrong giving this advice and anyone defending it is wrong as well. Shame you don't have anything to say other than I'm trolling, pretty obvious you don't have anything intelligent to refute what I've said.

I guess if being right is trolling, then I'm trolling. Because the writer is completely wrong giving this advice and anyone defending it is wrong as well. Shame you don't have anything to say other than I'm trolling, pretty obvious you don't have anything intelligent to refute what I've said.

This piece sounds like it was written by a 10-th grader, with an equal knowledge of computers and the subject. There is absolutely nothing in this column that leaves you more informed after you read it. You guys need to find someone who knows what they're writing about and spend more money on hiring them.

[QUOTE=KartRacer;6367429]I'm sorry, you're going to have to provide a citation for this claim. From what articles are written on SSD controllers at AnandTech.com and Anand Lal Shimpi doing extensive testing with manufacturers, it would seem you are completely wrong. He has reproduced errors and worked directly with a number of them to fix those errors. I trust AnandTech, I don't trust you and certainly not the sloppy, presumptuous, incorrect, and ignorant information in this article.

The Anandtech article does mention that TRIM is generally not recommended on SSD's with Sandforce controllers but doesn't have anything bad to say about the Enabler. FWIW